80 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 
than any other person in the country. So other States have their 
geologists, whose labors have been much among coal and iron 
deposits, and wa are ready to carry on any further investigations 
that may bem A special agent at Washington is not wanted, 
unless it be that the United States Treasury is, through Congress, 
a more accessible source of funds for surveys than the State Trea- 
suries. The idea that here is an open door for the supplies 
needed for new geological cael Aen be pretty sure to give 
such a scheme favor among geolo 
The following are points seoortiug ‘ohvéfal consideration before 
the amendment is passed. 
Its passage will put an end to all State Geological Sur- 
veys; for, by it, the General Government appoints a Director for 
such surveys, and “akee thereby, an implied oes that it will 
eer the funds requi 
septal surveys for the whole country, and sur veys of mineral 
i 
reference to Agricultural resources, and to all other points on 
which the value of the Public tas depend. And it might 
include surveys with reference to water-power along all streams 
with the same propriety, as these are resources of the highest 
oe hes 
(3.) All the weet may go to Congress for Poy) ah ki for 
Pate various purposes, if they are granted to 
(4.) Nearly all he: ‘States have had their Geological Surveys 
and have pabliabed volumes of Reports containing their results 
with regard to the rocks, fossils, ore beds and all mineral re- 
sources. More detailed and c complete surveys could, however, 
in all cases be made. But it would be vastly better, that mensu- 
ration surveys should first have been carefully made, as the writer 
has already urged. And with respect to the ore-deposits, these 
are now so well known through the surveys that have been made, 
that what remains, even in Tennessee, may well be left to private 
enterprise. There is no real need for help from the General Gov- 
ernment. 
(5.) The development of the resources of the States being as- 
sumed at Washington, State rights and State duties would thereby 
be absorbed by the Central Government; and this centralization 
is opposed aa the spirit if not the letter of the Constitution of the 
United State 
(6.) The nepeii of carrying out the deen of the amended 
bill would be enormous. For the re o be covered by the 
detailed surveys is the whole country, and a ahi its eho ne 
ment would demand would reach far into the indefinite future. — 
As the history of the Department of Geological Surveys is of 
Poe national interest, we publish here a copy of the estimates 
which Mr. King has submitted to Congress for the work of the 
Geologieai Su Surv. ey Department, during the next fiscal year ending 
une 30 
